Kinetic Military Action and Other Euphemisms to Suit Their Needs

What will the next euphemistic name change involve from the current U.S. administration? Today it's Kinetic Military Action, rather than actually saying we're bombing another country. Years ago dropping bombs on another country would have been called war, but we have not officially declared war since World War 2. They really can't call it a police action, lest someone think of Korea or Vietnam. To be fair, "kinetic military action" is not untrue. The very definition of kinetic is "pertaining to motion; caused by motion; or characterized by movement". At this very moment my fingers are participating in kinetic keyboard action. Sounds so much more cool than saying I'm typing up a story doesn't it.

This is not the first administration to use euphemisms but boy are they becoming the experts at it, even when it sounds idiotic. We did have "enhanced interrogation techniques" during the Bush admin to rename torture. When Obama took off the Iraq war, er, Operation Iraqi Freedom became Operation New Dawn. Which of course has led to the Libya action also being called Operation Odyssey Dawn, which sounds all pretty and nice doesn't it?

Global warming has become Global Climate Disruption. Terrorism and terrorist attacks are now "man caused disasters" because as Napolitano explained "we want to move away from the politics of fear". Therefore are we to conclude we should not be afraid of terrorists? The Global War on Terror became "overseas contingency operations" as soon as President Obama took office. Never mind these included what most are actually calling wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, even if they have officially never been declared wars.

For years we've softened some actions with euphemisms such as "collateral damage" when describing unintended damage, death or injury to innocent people. President Obama while campaigning in 2008 stated that "words matter" while in same time frame used the term "prolonged detention" to refer to his proposal of using open ended detainment or imprisonment of enemy combatants. Illegal immigrants are simply undocumented workers.

Feel free to contribute other euphemisms by this administration and others. I'll be perfectly honest in saying that I am not a fan of the current President, but I certainly am not afraid of calling others out on stupid catch phrases and euphemisms.

Words matter indeed.